SOCIAL INCLUSION AND EMPOWERMENT
UNDAF Outcome(s):
(Not applicable: Mauritius is a Category-C country)
Expected CP Outcome:
Capacity of public sector, NSAs and vulnerable groups strengthened to promote a coordinated approach in policy formulation and implementation for a more equitable and inclusive society.
Expected Outputs:
Targeting, delivery and monitoring arrangements for Ministry of Social Integration and Economic Empowerment social programmes (implemented through the National Empowerment Foundation) operational.
Empowerment and specific needs of excluded groups (especially women) adequately addressed through services delivered by public agencies and Non-State Actors
New models of service delivery and other pro-poor interventions and actions implemented and tested by the public sector, the private sector (through Corporate Social Responsibility activities), NGO’s and communities.
Executing Entities:
Ministry of Social Integration and Economic Empowerment (MSIEE) and the Ministry of Social Security, National Solidarity and Reform Institutions (MSS)
Implementing Agencies:
The National Empowerment Foundation (NEF) and the Non-State Actors’ (NSA) Unit
Other Collaborating Agencies:
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED); Ministry of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare; the National Computer Board; the Rodrigues Regional Assembly; Global Environment Facility / Small Grants Programme; the Decentralized Cooperation Programme (EU); the Mauritius Council of Social Services (MACOSS); the Rodrigues Council of Social Services (RCSS); Local Authorities in pilot areas (municipal and village councils, District Councils; Non-State Actors, including Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and NGOs, Private Sector Associations, Foundations and Institutions; other Specialised UN Agencies (such as UNWOMEN), and other Development Partners.
Brief DescriptionThe ‘Social Inclusion and Empowerment’ project is designed to support the Government of Mauritius and Non-State Actors in exploring more effective ways of addressing poverty and the exclusion of vulnerable groups from the socio-economic benefits that the majority of the population has enjoyed over the past few decades. It will facilitate capacity development processes to enhance the effectiveness of public and private sector institutions, NGOs and CSOs in working together under interventions intended to directly combat poverty and exclusion. In so doing, efforts will contribute towards the empowerment of citizens, improved public participation and transparency in the delivery of services (in line with MDG1); an increased share of women working in the mainstream economy; the political empowerment of women (MDG3), and the promotion of IT literacy amongst vulnerable sections of society.
The project takes a holistic, multi-sectoral, multi-agency, integrated approach. Emphasis is placed on learning from evidence-based best practices, the principles of which will then be replicated, scaled-up and used to inform policy level dialogue on issues relating to the delivery of projects and services intended to address poverty and exclusion. The overall intervention will be underpinned by the development of a culture and a capacity within all stakeholder agencies to engage in effective monitoring and evaluation.
The project will be executed under National Implementation Modalities (NIM) by a Management Unit located within the premises of the MSIEE over a four year period, with a sub-unit in Rodrigues. The main executing agencies will be the MSIEE, with the support of the National Empowerment Foundation, and the MSS, supported by the NSA Unit. Multiple stakeholder agencies will collaborate in the project, which will be reviewed and monitored by relevant partners. The project also aims to contribute to the CP 2013-2016 outcomes of pillar 1 (Planning and Resource Management for inclusive growth) and pillar 3 (Energy and Environment) of the overall Country Programme in improving the quality of Mauritius’ growth and human development. The project also takes account of the need for UN Agencies to Deliver as One.
Programme Period: 2013 - 2016
Key Result Area: Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion
Atlas Award ID: _____
Document Completion Date: December 2012
Start date: January 2013
End Date: December 2016
PAC Meeting Date: 21st November 2012
Management Arrangements:NIM and UNDP Country Office Support to NIM
Total resources required US$ 1,375,010
Total allocated resources:US$ (UNDP and UN Women)
- Regular (TRAC1)US$ 543,000
- Other:
- UNDP (TRAC2)US$ 300,000 (TBC)
- UN WomenUS$ 110,000 (of which $60,000 TBC)
- Government
- MSSUS$ 132,000
- MSIEEUS$ 140,000
- MGEIn kind
- NCBIn kind
- RRA US$ 65,000
CSR / Other DonorsUS$ (Dependent upon LIDP requirements & resource mobilisation efforts)
*All figures are converted from Mauritian Rupees with the UN exchange rate of MUR 29 /1 USD.
Agreed by Government
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development:Date:
Mr. Ali Mansoor, Financial Secretary
Agreed by Executing Entities
Mr. B. Boyramboli, Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Social Integration and Economic EmpowermentDate:
Mr. R. Duva-Pentiah, Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Social Security Date:
Agreed by United Nations Development Programme:
Mr. Simon Springett, Resident RepresentativeDate:
I. Situation Analysis
1.1 In many respects, the rapid development of Mauritius since independence in 1968 has been remarkable. The country has successfully transformed itself from a low income, mono-crop agricultural economy based largely on sugarcane, to an upper middle-income country with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of US$8,240 in 2011. It also scores well in terms of Human Development, with a Human Development Index of 0.728, thereby ranking 77th out of 187 countries and second in Sub-Saharan Africa. These achievements may be attributed to successive Governments’ pursuit of liberal, open economic policies, focusing on growth and employment, and sound macro-economic management, and the simultaneous maintenance of an elaborate social welfare system. Despite the global economic crisis over recent years and the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, which is an important trading partner, Mauritius has been able to attain an average real GDP growth of 4.5% during the period 2007 to 2011. Efforts to diversify the economy from the traditional sectors of tourism, textiles and sugar to new ones such as information and communication technologies and financial services continue to yield successes. However, the unemployment rate has gone up from 7.2% in 2008 to 7.9 % in 2011.
1.2 Mauritius has also made significant progress in achieving the targets set in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), notably in areas such as education, gender equality in education, adult literacy, infant mortality and the provision of safe drinking water and improved sanitation. Nevertheless, the country has to deal with several important challenges. These include residual, but still significant levels of poverty, with some 26,000 households representing 7.9% of total households falling below the national Relative Poverty Line (Statistics Mauritius, Poverty Analysis 2006/07). This figure rises to 17.9% in Rodrigues. Inequality is also a feature of this poverty. Mauritius has a Gini coefficient of 0.38, and there are significant spatial disparities in the incidence of poverty. In particular, the island of Rodrigues has generally missed out on the rapid economic development experienced on the main island of the Republic. It is characterised by an economy largely dependent upon subsistence agriculture and fisheries, supported by a large public sector, with limited opportunities for private sector employment. According to the 2011 census, Rodrigues is the second most impoverished region of the country, surpassed only by Le Morne Village Council Area.
1.3 Gender disparities also persist across a range of social and economic issues. For example, only 18% of Members of Parliament are female, well below the SADC target of 30%, and female unemployment in 2011 stood at 13%, in comparison to the male rate of 4.7%. Gender-based violence also affects women more than men. In 2010, for example, out of 2,215 reported cases, 1,952 were women. There has also been a reversal in maternal mortality, with an increasing trend since 2007.
1.4 In addition, Mauritius faces major development challenges typical of middle–income Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as environmental vulnerability and exposure to natural disasters, especially in the face of climate change; coastal zone erosion; endangered species; reduction in forest coverage; decrease in fish stocks; water shortages, and vulnerability to external economic trends, including decreasing Overseas Development Assistance. In order to sustain diversified growth, whilst promoting social inclusion and securing environmental sustainability, the Government has formulated an overarching plan, Maurice Ile Durable (MID). This is built around five pillars - Education, Equity, Employment, Environment and Energy.
1.5 Furthermore, policy formulation and implementation of poverty reduction strategies are hampered by the lack of proper eligibility assessment mechanisms for social programmes, leading to substantial (constituting around 4.4% of GDP) but ineffective social spending, with large errors of both exclusion and inclusion. Tools to measure and manage programme performance are inadequate and there is a paucity of capacity and skills within public institutions and among Non-State Actors (NSAs) to conceptualise and design new initiatives to address poverty and social exclusion. Accountability for public service delivery and performance is also limited. The effects of these shortcomings manifest themselves in several widely recognised, tangible and inter-related problems, as follows:
Current interventions do not reach those most in need of support
Many programmes are poorly designed, with insufficient attention to the long term empowerment of the beneficiaries, leading instead to dependency
Projects are designed with a short time horizon, with insufficient attention to sustainability and the nurturing of transformational processes
Interventions tend to be activity-based, deliver products and pay insufficient attention to processes and accompaniment
Policy makers and project planners lack the technical skills to analyse the needs of beneficiaries or underlying causes of poverty, and do not understand their aspirations
There is insufficient participation of the beneficiaries in the formulation of projects and programmes, and a tendency towards a ‘top down’ approach
Potential beneficiaries are not well informed and sensitized on services offered and opportunities available under various progammes
Few opportunities exist for citizens to provide feedback on the quality of services being provided
There is lack of a proper M&E Framework to assess programmes within both the state and non-state sectors
There is need to share best practices for greater effectiveness of social programmes
Despite some positive developments over recent years under the National Empowerment Foundation and increasing levels of Corporate Social Responsibility, partnerships between the public sector, private sector and civil society have yet to realise concrete results
Some programmes tend to be piecemeal and operate in ‘silos’. Without the required integrated, co-ordinated, holistic, multi-stakeholder approach,interventions do not achieve the desired results in addressing the multi-dimensional nature of poverty and exclusion
Co-operation between Ministries and Commissions of the RRA needs to be strengthened for greater sharing of knowledge and experiences
Interventions designed for Mauritius should duly consider the specificities of Rodrigues for greater effectiveness of policies and programmes.
1.6 Over the next Programme Cycle (Country Programme 2013-2016), UNDP Mauritius has committed itself to assist the Government to strengthen institutional capabilities for accountable, equitable and effective use of public resources. These areas will be addressed by:
i. Improving the capacity of Government agencies in strategic planning, programme-based budgeting and effective service delivery;
ii Strengthening the capacity of the public sector, NSAs and vulnerable groups to promote a coordinated approach in policy formulation and implementation for a more equitable and inclusive society; and,
iii. Achieving environmental sustainability while addressing climate change and ensuring more effective protection and conservation of natural resources.
1.7 The Social Inclusion and Empowerment Project will focus on the second pillar mentioned above. However, linkages and synergies amongst the three components will be actively pursued. Public sector ministries and agencies and Non- State Actors will benefit from capacity-building initiatives in areas such as participatory planning and policy formulation; designing and delivering pro-poor projects, and M&E. The intended final beneficiaries will be the poor and marginalised living in areas of multiple deprivation, the so-called pockets of poverty. More generally, women will also benefit from empowerment interventions and an engendered policy environment.
II. Strategy
2.1 The National Strategy
The main areas of focus of the previous Country Programme were public sector reform, inclusive growth, environmental protection and climate change. The UNDP Country Strategy (2013 to 2016) has been designed to build on this former support, incorporating lessons learnt. As such, it will assist the Government in achieving more sustainable and equitable growth and human development, utilising a limited number of triggers that can have major multiplier effects across a broad spectrum of critical development issues – improving the outcomes of public expenditure, expanding opportunities and institutional channels for social inclusion, and enabling prudent management of natural resources and timely adaption to climate change. Thus, it will contribute to the realisation of the objectives of the Government’s Maurice Ile Durable.
The Country Programme will also continue support to, and inform the reform of, the National Empowerment Foundation (NEF).[1] Despite this non-profit company’s objective of ensuring more coherence in the implementation of pro-poor programmes, and the large amount of resources at its disposal, generally speaking, results to date have not improved significantly. An evaluation in 2010 attributed these shortcomings to (amongst others) weaknesses in monitoring and evaluation and accountability systems; a weak focus on results; a lack of a common approach to targeting and performance measurement; a lack of ongoing analysis within programmes, and the absence of a working model of poverty and poverty reduction to guide analysis and planning.[2]The new Country Programme will attempt to address these constraints. It will also assist the Government in reforming national social security services, in order to ensure more efficient and effective delivery of social welfare programmes. Building local capacity will underpin the overall approach.
2.2 Project Strategy
The intended outcome of the project is stated as follows:
Capacity of public sector, NSAs and vulnerable groups strengthened to promote a coordinated approach in policy formulation and implementation for a more equitable and inclusive society.
Thus, the project will support the Government’s strong commitment to assisting the country’s small population of poor households, in order to bring them into the mainstream of society. In pursuing this outcome, the project will involve a series of activities that will result in the delivery of specific products and services, grouped under three distinct, yet inter-dependent outputs. These are outlined in more detail in the following paragraphs.
Output 1:
Targeting, delivery and monitoring arrangements for Ministry of Social Integration and Economic Empowerment social programmes (implemented through the National Empowerment Foundation) operational.
In realising output 1, the project will attempt to bring about a more efficient identification of vulnerable groups and disadvantaged areas for inclusion in pro-poor programmes. Under previous programmes, UNDP provided assistance for the technical design of a Social Register of Mauritius (SRM) and a Proxy Means Test (PMT) to improve the targeting efficiency and harmonization of the multitude of social programmes operational in the country. The SRM, which is housed within MSS, has already been utilized to implement the new housing and crèches schemes announced in the 2012 budget. Under Pillar 1 of the Country Programme (2013 to 2016), technical assistance for the further development of the SRM will continue. The Social Inclusion and Empowerment pillar will utilise this system as a means of identifying final beneficiaries and geographic locations for the implementation of pilot projects (see output 3), along with complementary data collection tools. The SRM will also feed into improved monitoring and evaluation systems.[3]
Output 1 will require capacity-building initiatives. Following a needs assessment, these will target the development of skills and tools for results-based project and programme planning for relevant staff working within MSS, NEF, Ministry of Gender, RRA and participating NSAs. In order to address the related issue of weak monitoring and evaluation systems, the project will continue the support that commenced in April 2012. This will require the ongoing deployment of an M&E expert funded by UNDP to operationalise the M&E Unit already established within NEF. MSIEE will appoint a suitably qualified counterpart to ensure skills transfer, national ownership and lasting benefits, and provide operational funds. The World Bank will provide technical assistance to the development of M&E systems designed to ensure value for money, transparency and accountability, as well as feedback on performance for improved, dynamic project management. The Unit will also address the capacity building needs of the public sector (Ministries, National Institutions, the RRA, the NEF (including case workers in its Rodrigues office) and the private sector working on CSR interventions to implement M&E systems at service delivery and project levels. The capacity building of NSAs to implement M&E systems at project level will be addressed in tandem through the Common Training Strategy Committee, established by the MSS in collaboration with the NGO Trust Fund, the EU funded Decentralised Cooperation Programme (DCP), MACOSS, and NCSR Committee.[4]
In addition, the project will support the M&E Unit to review all existing NEF projects under each of its operational pillars (Placement and Training; Child and Family Welfare; Social Housing, and Community Empowerment). This will include the development of SMART OVI’s for each NEF programme, and the design of data collection tools and the establishment of appropriate baseline data. In carrying out its work, the Unit will work closely with the Economic Planning and Monitoring Unit (EPMU) of the Chief Commissioner’s Office in Rodrigues, and ensure appropriate solutions for M&E shortcomings on the island. It will also liaise with the NSA Unit on all issues related to M&E, and contribute to the Knowledge Management activities foreseen under output 3. (For detailed Terms of Reference for the M&E Officer, please refer to Annex II).